Quotes
by ExceedinglyPeculiarChick
Summary: A collection of unrelated drabbles on different characters and couples, inspired by real-world quotes. T to be safe.
1. Percy and Annabeth

**A/N: Okay, so this is going to be a little strange. Call it what you will, but I'm planning on making this a collection of drabbles, each focusing on one pairing from either the PJO series or the HoO series and based off a random quote—humor, romance, angst, and everything in between. It's a little project to help me with writer's block, I suppose (we all know how much that sucks, don't we?). If there's a specific couple you want to see me do, or one of your very favorite quotes you'd like me to use, leave it in a review!**

—-—-—

_Percy and Annabeth: "You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams." —Dr. Seuss_

Percy and I were sitting under a tree—having finally managed to get some time alone—watching the sun set over Long Island Sound. I was designing a new temple for Hestia; he was sprawled out beside me, his back pressed against the tree and one arm around my shoulders as he watched the rhythmic pounding of the waves against the shore through half-closed eyes.

"You must be tired," I said quietly after a while, putting down my pencil to run my fingers through his hair. "All that sparring with Clarisse today must have worn you out."

"Yeah," he admitted after a while. "Gods, I hate how tired this curse of Achilles thing makes me feel."

"So go to sleep!" I laughed, fighting the urge to roll my eyes. He could be so frustratingly _dense_ sometimes!

He rolled over, fixing me with a piercing green gaze. "I can't."

"Why? What's the matter?" Mentally, I berated myself for sounding like a fussy mother hen, but I couldn't help it. I always worried about Percy. (Old habits die hard, I guess.)

"Nothing's the matter. It's just—well, you know how vivid our dreams are? How sometimes, they're prophetic or weird or just downright terrifying?" His voice was thoughtful, as if he wanted to be careful of what he was saying.

"Of course," I said, looking at him quizzically.

"So I can't sleep…because reality is so much nicer. And besides—"

He interrupted the rest of his sentence by leaning over and kissing me.

When we finally broke apart, both breathless and gasping for air, he shot me a cocky smile. "_That_ doesn't feel as good in my dreams."

"You're such a seaweed brain, Percy," I muttered, "but you're my Seaweed Brain."

He grinned. "And I wouldn't have it any other way."

—-—-—

**Thoughts? Suggestions? Please review! :)**

EPC 


	2. Beckendorf and Silena

_Beckendorf and Silena: "I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." —Douglas Adams_

I had never in all my life felt so nervous—ironic, really, considering was dead. But I dare you to try not feeling nervous when three people are trying to decide where you're going to go for all of eternity, especially when you know you did some stuff _seriously_ wrong.

"Elysium," the three judges said in unison, snapping me out of my thoughts.

Shock coursed through me, quickly followed by an enormous tidal wave of relief. "Really? Oh, thank you!"

I barely knew where my feet were taking me—just that I was looking for him. As I burst through the gates of Elysium, I called, "Charlie!"

"Silena?" His voice came from beneath a tree somewhere off to the right. "Silena!"

I turned to see him running toward me, his arms outstretched, and I crashed into him hard enough to knock us both over.

"I'm so sorry," I sobbed into his shoulder. "I knew I shouldn't have done it, but he—he wouldn't let me back out and I may have just gotten them all killed and—"

"Silena." Charlie's voice was firm. "I don't blame you for anything. You were used, that's all. None of it is your fault. And if I know Percy—" he cast a look upward "—he won't let us down."

I wiped under my eyes. "I know he won't."

Charlie's eyes brightened as he squirmed out from under me and helped me up. "Come on, girl. You may have made some mistakes, but you ended up right where you needed to be."

I nodded. "With you. Forever."

He winked. "That's the ticket."

And he took my hand as we walked off into our forever.

—-—-—

**A/N: Short one, I know, but this is how my head canon sort of pans out the aftermath of Silena's death from her point of view. I also don't think that Beckendorf would be the blaming type. :)**

EPC 


	3. Chris and Clarisse

_Chris and Clarisse: "Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it." —Confucius_

Heaving an enormous sigh, I shouldered my five-ton backpack (the nerve of some of these teachers that gave us _so much_ homework every night—if only I could show them the business end of Maimer; that would fix things right up) and was about to close my locker when I heard two teachers talking in an empty classroom nearby. I checked my watch; I still had five minutes before my mom was coming to pick me up, so I tiptoed over to listen.

"I'm afraid Chris doesn't understand the assignment," someone was saying, and I was suddenly on high alert. Chris was my boyfriend; we went to the same school in Phoenix when we weren't at camp, and I wanted to know what was going on.

"What happened?" asked another voice.

There was the sound of paper shuffling. "The class was each assigned a different prompt that they had to write a short essay on. Mr. Rodriguez was given the word 'beauty', and he handed in his paper today—properly headed and everything—but there's only one word written on it. A name, actually."

"And what would that name be?"

There was a long beat of silence. "'_Clarisse_.'"

There was the sound of a car horn honking outside. Grinning like a moron, I almost skipped out to meet my mother. (And if you know me, that is decidedly not my style.)

Not even my ten-page essay on _Call of the Wild_ could bother me now.

—-—-—

**A/N: Whoa, three chapters in one day? I'm pretty sure this is, like, a record. :D**

A note: These will not all be romantic pairings; some will be friendship, family, blah, blah, blah. They will, however, be mostly* canon, so no slash. Just to give you guys a sneak peek, here's my lineup for the next four chapters: Jason/Piper, Travis/Katie, Frank/Hazel, and Luke/Thalia (sorry, Thuke shippers, but it's not romance).

Please review!

EPC

*: I know that Jason/Piper is canon according to the first chapter of Mark of Athena, but I wanted to do a one-sided Jason/Reyna, since I've never written that before. 


	4. Jason and Piper

_Jason and Piper: "I wanted a perfect ending. Now I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next." —Gilda Radner_

The basketball made a satisfying _swish_ as it dropped through the hoop and bounced straight into Jason's outstretched hands. Sweaty and exhausted, he dropped onto a bench, stuck the basketball between his feet, and leaned back as he surveyed the activity going on around camp.

Suddenly, there was movement beside him, and he turned to see Piper—back from her video call at the Big House.

"Hey. How'd it go?"

He felt more comfortable asking her questions now, even though he knew that his memories weren't going to be good for them. It was coming back to him slowly now—there was a girl named Reyna at the other camp, but he couldn't remember whether or not they had ever been serious. The problem was, he liked Piper a lot.

Oh, well. They would cross that bridge when they came to it. That's what friends did, right?

Only now, Jason found himself wishing that they could be a bit more than just _friends_.

—-—-—

**Little short one that popped into my head right as I was about to go to sleep. Gotta love plot bunnies, right? :D**

I found a couple quotes that inspired me to do one of these from Percy's POV right after the Battle of Manhattan, so that'll probably be next chapter. Anyone interested in that? (I figured a break from romance every once in a while would be good, since most of my fics are about romance anyway. I need some other practice.) After that—definitely a Tratie, and a Frazel, and the big Jeyna one. Yeesh, that's going to be hard to write, since I don't really know much about how to write Reyna really well. Ah, well, time to reread Son of Neptune.

Okay, huge long A/N over, because I need to go to bed. (Hope, you remember what happened last time I pulled an all-nighter and ate giant marshmallows, right?)

EPC 


	5. Battle of Manhattan

_After the Battle of Manhattan: "Things change. And friends leave. Life doesn't stop for anybody." —Steven Chbosky, _The Perks of Being a Wallflower

"Hey, Percy?" Beckendorf said over the noise of the forges. I had gone down there to pay him a visit while he smelted Mrs. O'Leary a new Celestial bronze bone (since she had sort of… well, _destroyed_ the other one, but that's a long story).

"Yeah?" I pulled out Riptide, twirling the pen between my fingers like I always did when I was bored.

"Can you keep a secret?"

"Um, of course."

Beckendorf glanced around, like he was trying not to be overheard, but we were the only ones in the forges. He dragged over his tool box, popped open the lid, and pulled out a small, velvet-covered box. Inside, a silver ring with two emeralds on either side of a small diamond nestled against a bed of white silk.

My jaw almost hit the ground. "You're proposing?"

He grinned. "Sort of. See, it's a promise ring—you know, you promise yourself to someone, but it's not, like, official or anything yet. I want a chance to get through college, get a job, you know…"

"That's great, man," I said, clapping him on the shoulder. "You and Silena are a great couple."

"Thanks, Perce." He smiled. "Now, let's take this bone to Mrs. O'Leary and try not to get killed doing it, agreed?"

"Agreed," I laughed, getting up and following him out the door.

—-—-—

The box was safely in my pocket as I made my way to the campfire. Nobody was there yet—they were all still at dinner—but a row of shroud-covered bodies already lay by the black flames.

I found the one I had been looking for—the hot pink shroud that designated a child of Aphrodite. Crouching down, I peeled back a corner of the shroud and gently took the cold hand, streaked with burn marks and gaping wounds. Then I dug the box out of my pocket and slid the ring onto the third finger.

"Beckendorf would have wanted you to know," I told her quietly. "'Bye, Silena."

—-—-—

**A/N: Angst galore. I know this one is a bit longish, but it just fit so well with the aftermath of the battle, and I had to write it.**

Next up: our long-promised Tratie! :D

EPC 


	6. Travis and Katie

_Travis and Katie: "We are all a little weird. And life is a little weird. And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness and call it love—true love." —Robert Fulghum_

"Travis?" Katie asked.

"Mhm?"

"What's the next thing we have to get?"

We were the designated shoppers for the Commune this week (a name devised by Connor for Percy's giant apartment-slash-hotel). While Percy owned the apartment, any demigod who needed a place to stay while in New York was welcome to move in with him and Annabeth. It was a pretty good system, actually; the only downside was that packing so many battle-trained college students into such a confined space tended to result in lots of particularly… _colorful_ arguments.

"Um…" I looked down the list. "That special shampoo that Leo wanted."

"Okay." Katie stopped the cart in front of a display of shampoo, picked up a bottle, and flipped it over to read the price tag. "My gods, twelve dollars? He can buy his own freaking shampoo." She stuck it back on the shelf. "What's next?"

Picking up the list again, I said, "Tampons? Oh, great."

Katie laughed. "What do you mean, 'oh, great'? Who is it that needs tampons?"

"Annabeth, Piper, Hazel, Lacey, you… it's going to be a madhouse next week."

She rolled her eyes. "Hey, we can't exactly help the whole hormones thing."

"Plus, I've never exactly been comfortable with—you know—lady parts," I added, following her into the next aisle.

Katie whipped around to look at me. "Travis Stoll, we've been in a relationship for _how_ many months now, and you're 'not comfortable' with them?"

I held up my hands in a peace gesture. "Okay, okay! Gods, Katie…"

It hit me right then that this girl in front of me was absolutely crazy. Weird. Psycho. And I loved it. I decided that I was going to do something amazing and Stoll-worthy—already, I was looking for the one item from this grocery store that I had my mind on.

I was going to propose to Katie Gardner.

—-—-—

We got back to the apartment to find Annabeth's half-brother Malcolm with his head dangling off the couch, tongue between his teeth as he scribbled down notes of a sheet of paper.

"Hey, Malcolm," I said as Katie went off into the kitchen to deliver the groceries. "Where's Percy?"

"Here, man," said a voice from the doorway, and Percy came out of his bedroom twirling his pen between his fingers. "What's up?"

I dropped my voice to a whisper. "I'm going to propose tonight."

Both guys' eyes widened in surprise. Finally, Malcolm choked out, "That's great, Travis!"

"Congratulations, man," Percy added. "Can we see the ring?"

I took a deep breath… and pulled out the watermelon Ring Pop.

—-—-—

**A/N: I can totally see Travis proposing with a Ring Pop… haha. Anyway, the idea for this one came from a longer story called "Suck On That, Kate Middleton!", and a lot of the ideas in here came from that fic—I just condensed it into a much crappier drabble form.**

My friend wombat-of-awesomeness is going to do another Tratie drabble and put it in here, so that'll be coming soon… oh, yeah, and the next three chapters will be Frazel, Thuke, and Jeyna.

Don't forget to leave any suggestions for quotes, pairings (NO slash), or events you want to see me do in your reviews!

EPC 


	7. Frank and Hazel

_Frank and Hazel: "Love enables you to put your deepest feelings and fears in the palm of your partner's hand, knowing they will be handled with care." —Carl S. Avery_

I couldn't believe Frank actually trusted me with his piece of wood—his lifeline—to protect and hold. I mean, I didn't know I ever meant that much to him, though I must say it wasn't an altogether unpleasant experience to find out.

So I bet you're thinking that I wasn't surprised when Frank took me behind the Fifth Cohort barracks and asked me to be his girlfriend.

Wrong answer.

After he finally choked out the words (this took a lot of muttering to himself and several slaps on the back because I thought he was choking), my jaw just about hit the ground.

"Please, Hazel? Will you?"

"I—of course I will, you moron!" I could have been a lot more eloquent in my answer, but I didn't care.

Sammy was a part of old Hazel's life. New Hazel had Frank—and that was all I needed.

So when he looked me in the eyes and said, "I love you," I was able to answer back honestly.

"I love you, too."

—-—-—

**A/N: I'm not terribly proud of this one, but it's better than what I wrote the first several times I tried to do this one. Some just come naturally, and others…well, you know what I mean.**

Anyway, thanks to wombat-of-awesomeness (THROW THE CHEESE!) for the quote—she PM'ed me with it and said, "Can you say Frazel?" She actually just posted her first story—a really sad Hunger Games one-shot—so if you like the trilogy, go read it _now_.

Next up: Thuke (but not the way you think!)

If you liked it, please review!

EPC 


	8. Percy and Annabeth II

_Percy and Annabeth II: "Love is when each person is more concerned for the other than for one's self." —David Frost_

I had done plenty of sneaking around in my life, but somehow, this time felt different. I couldn't tell you why if I sat here till I was fifty—it just wasn't like all the others.

Maybe that was because I was tiptoeing down the hallway of a giant flying warship to go check on my boyfriend, even though it was the middle of the night.

I passed the others' doors—painstakingly painted by a joint team of Aphrodite and Demeter campers—and even though I had seen them so many times before, they still amazed me. Jason's was a deep purple color, with a lightning bolt, SPQR, and twelve lines painted on in gold to match his tattoo; Leo's was covered in a patchwork of gears; Hazel's, done by Piper just after we had arrived at Camp Jupiter, had a beautiful rendition of Arion brushed onto the wood.

Finally, I stopped in front of the middle door: a sunset over sparkling blue-green ocean waves. My fingers hovered over the handle as I had a moment of indecision.

_I have to go in there. I have to make sure he's safe. What if he's gone again? What if this is all one long nightmare?_

I took a deep breath, opened the door, and got the biggest shock of my life.

Percy was standing right on the other side, his eyes half-closed and hair a mess from sleeping. He leapt back about a foot when he saw me, but he was grinning.

"Hey, Wise Girl. You couldn't sleep, either?"

I shook my head. "Had to come see if you were okay."

He offered me his hand and said, "Well, does this reassure you?"

"Very much," I replied, cracking a smile.

"Come here," Percy whispered suddenly, pulling me into his room. "I don't want you to have to keep doing this."

He sat me down on the bed, flopped back onto his pillows, and spread his arms. "You can listen all you like—worry-free."

Grinning, I laid my head against his chest—filling my ears with the steady _thump-thump-thump_ of his heart.

"Still beating?" he mumbled, briefly pressing his lips to the top of my head.

"Be sure it stays that way." I raised my head up just enough to look him in the eyes. "I love you, Seaweed Brain."

"I love you more."

—-—-—

**A/N: Gaah, sorry, guys. I know I promised some Thuke, but I had really bad writer's block and this was all I could come up with. It's super long and doesn't really fit the whole purpose of a drabble, but I felt guilty for making you wait so long for me to get my sh*t together and publish something. So here it is. Voila. (You know, I always find it easy to write some good Percabeth…but that isn't necessarily a bad thing, now is it? :D)**

Please review!

EPC 


	9. Luke and Thalia

_Luke and Thalia: "We've all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That's who we really are." —J. K. Rowling,_ Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

You never thought you'd die this way—staring up at the faces of the sixteen-year-old girl you met years ago in a dark alley and the black-haired, green-eyed son of Poseidon that was once your friend. Some distant, evil part of your brain is whispering _no, no, you hate him_, but you push it aside.

You clutch at Percy's shirt sleeve, beseeching him with your gaze, trying to get your point across. He swallows, makes his promise, and gives a tiny nod—forgiveness without words. You're wishing she was there, but she isn't, so you'll have to make do.

The Underworld begins to slide into focus as your vision blurs and darkens. Some part of you is glad Percy chose to hand you the knife, but the emotion at the forefront of your mind is loss.

You understand how Zeus felt now, because you felt that way for years—and now she'll feel that way for eternity. And you pity her for it.

Just before the world goes completely dark, shutting out the faces of Percy and Annabeth forever, you have one final thought.

_I'm sorry I did this to you, Thalia._

—-—-—

**A/N: Hey, people! I'm alive!**

So I don't feel like this is one of my better ones, but at least it's something. And it's not sappy romance for once—which is a nice change, I must say :)

Suggested reading: _The Kane Chronicles_, Rick Riordan's Egyptian series. While I think PJO/HoO is definitely better, it's still very well written. (And it has funny chapter titles, which I definitely miss in the HoO series.) I'm about halfway through _The Red Pyramid_ now—it's a good way to pass the time until MoA, anyway!

Please review!

EPC 


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